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Family
Posted by Steve Holt on April 19, 2010 at 9:53 am
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth prisoners with singing… (Ps. 68:4-6)
How many adjectives can you pin on “family”? Here are a few I thought of: Nice, safe, fun, quirky, crazy, demanding, single, imperfect, blessed, dysfunctional, functional, irreplaceable, laid-back, active, forgiving, multi-generational, rich, poor, middle-class…
I am thankful to have grown up in a wonderful, wild and wacky family. It was wonderful in too many ways to mention here. It was wild because all 8 of us had minds of our own, and things sometimes got a little out of hand. And it was wacky! In fact, it was so wacky that when the remaining members of my family get together now, we mostly tell funny stories of the wacky things that happened in our family. Like the year our family visited Colorado and my dad let my 16-year old brother drive the entire family up Pikes Peak on the first weekend the road up was open after the winter. Snow all over the road, and the closer we got to the summit, the worse the visibility. My mother sat in the back seat with her arms wrapped around her two youngest yelling at my brother, “Don’t look! Don’t look!”…meaning I suppose, don’t take your eyes off the road to take in the wondrous sights below. But how wacky is it to tell the driver not to look!
What was your family like growing up? I hope it was mostly positive. And even if your experience was less than positive, God’s original plan for families was a great idea. Marriage and family were the first social institutions, existing long before tribes, clans and nations…long before a “chosen people,” and much longer than the church. In fact, notice how virtually every social enterprise since the first family attempts to pattern itself to some degree after the family concept. God intended families to be safe havens in which family members grow to fullness in every way.
Psalm 68:4-6 testifies to God’s desire for families to be the safe place for all: the fit and the fragile. His household will care for orphans, widows and “the lonely.” In fact, notice that he himself sets the lonely in families. The family is the launching pad for human beings.
Family is God’s idea, and Christian Homes & Family Services puts families together. We place babies and children in loving Christian homes. We connect birth mothers with adoptive parents who will care for her like family long after her delivery. We send adoptive couples imprisoned by years of infertility home singing.
I’m glad to work for a ministry that does the work of God every day.
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I dare you to share a story from your family that’s wild, wacky or wonderful. Come on…do it now!
